The beginning student, in learning how to play a stringed instrument such as a guitar, is confronted with several problems. Quite often, he must first familiarize himself with the parts of the guitar and may often have to familiarize himself with the construction of sheet music. In addition, it is usually necessary to learn how to properly hold the guitar and how to properly position and use one's fingers to press the appropriate guitar strings against the frets. Without using any mechanical aids, the beginning student relies on both his visual and tactile senses. In the normal situation, the student places the music sheet, containing the exercise to be practiced, in front of him. He next determines from the exercise which note or notes are to be played and then moves his fingers to the appropriate string and fret position. Obviously, with the beginning student, the finger placement requires visual observation of the guitar fingerboard; and each time a new note must be obtained, the student is required to look back and forth between the music sheet and the guitar.
In the past, various mechanical aids have been suggested for assisting the beginning student in learning how to play the stringed instrument. In some systems, the fingerboard of the guitar may simply be provided with coloring to assist in distinguishing the different positions of the strings. Representative patents showing structures of this type are U.S. Pat. Nos. 357,168, 1,699,380 and 3,820,434. In other constructions, instruction cards may be attached directly to the guitar with or without using color for further instructive assistance. Patents disclosing structures of this type are U.S. Pat. Nos. 826,379, 3,218,904 and 3,785,240.
Although the prior approaches may be of some assistance to the beginning student, they do have certain drawbacks in common with each other. All of the systems, regardless of their simplicity or complexity, require the student to shift back and forth between viewing music in front of him to observing the fingerboard of the guitar being held. In addition, the more complicated instructive aids are cumbersome in that they include structure, in addition to the normal sheet music, which must be manipulated as the lesson progresses. This manipulation, by being in addition to simple fingering of the guitar strings, tends to further complicate rather than simplify the learning procedure.